Within the general context of the development of motive hierarchies in children, we have concentrated on the relative strength of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivational orientations. Our approach has been to think about this issue within three separate competence domains, cognitive, social, and physical skills. Given the paucity of measures in this general research area, the major thrust of our current work has been the construction of measures. We have now constructed measures of these motive systems both as they operate in the classroom, as well as how they operate more generally in the child's life. We are particularly interested in establishing the ecological validity of these measures, in addition to employing them in our laboratory studies. We have also addressed ourselves to the measurement of certain personality correlates of these motive systems, specifically (a) the child's self-esteem or perceived competence and (b) his or her perceptions of control, in each of the three-mastery domains listed above. In addition, we are assessing the role of such mediating variables as the child's preference for these various activities, along with his or her view of the importance of success in each domain. In addition to our concern with establishing both the reliability and validity of our newly constructed measures, we are interested in their inter-relationships. Given our focus on the educational implications of these constructs, we are currently administering these measures to a variety of populations, e.g., open and traditional classroom children, various special educational groups, etc. These findings are being integrated into the investigator's general theoretical model which attempts to outline those developmental considerations relevant to an understanding of differences and changes in the strength of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivational orientations, along with the correlates of these motive systems. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: Harter, S. Mastery Motivation and need for approval in older children and their relationship to social desirability response tendencies. Developmental Psychology, 1975, 11, 186-196. Harter, S. Developmental differences in the mainfestation of mastery motivation. Child Development, 1975, 46, 370-378.